Items tagged with Amazon

Great news! Jezza, Hamster, and Captain Slow are returning to film a brand new automotive series, and as previously reported it will be an online-only affair. After months of speculation, Jeremey Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May didn’t actually land at Netflix, which was the runaway favorite and obvious shoe-in for a new series. Instead, the English trio was picked up by Amazon for an undisclosed sum. All that Amazon is saying about the Prime-exclusive deal is that, “We have made a significant investment.” At this time, the series is without a name, as “Top Gear” is owned by the BBC. However,...Read more...

Over the past twenty years Amazon has grown from a company selling books out of a garage to an online retailer that dabbles in everything from streaming video to Android-based tablets/phones to web services that have become a $6 billion business for the company. Amazon has also ventured out into grocery business in recent years with AmazonFresh, which delivers — you guessed it — fresh groceries in select, urban areas around the United States (same-day and next-day delivery services are offered via AmazonFresh). However, Amazon is embarking on a new endeavor that provides yet another delivery option...Read more...

Here's the deal folks, if you own a valid copy of Windows 7 with SP1 installed or Windows 8.1, you can upgrade to Windows 10 free of charge for the first year. You may have even registered for your upgrade via a taskbar icon. If not, go ahead and get in line -- Microsoft will begin doling out Windows 10 updates on July 29, which will roll out in waves.What if you don't own a copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 and plan on building a new system? Well, you'll have to pony up for Windows 10. If you're feeling anxious, you can place your pre-order right now at Amazon. The online seller is offering Windows...Read more...

In case you forgot to mark your calendar, today is Prime Day, a special one-day shopping event created by Amazon to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Amazon says there are more deals than Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, though to participate you need to be a Prime member in the U.S., U.K., Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, or Austria. "Prime members can shop thousands of exclusive lightning deals with new deals added as often as every ten minutes throughout the day. With more deals than Black Friday, members will enjoy thousands of deals from sought-after devices and...Read more...

In another sign that the online competition between Amazon and Walmart is heating up, Walmart took Amazon to task on its blog today for its upcoming sale. Amazon has been heavily promoting what it calls Prime Day (July 15th), which will feature loads of sales available only to Amazon Prime members. In a tongue-in-cheek spoof of Amazon’s Prime Day ad, Walmart points out that it doesn’t charge customers a fee for access to its prices. But Walmart is going a step further by launching what it calls “atomic deals” this week. “We’ve heard some retailers are charging $100 to get access...Read more...

There's not a ton of separation between streaming set-top boxes and dongles, and even less so now that Amazon announced its new cross-platform Amazon Fling service. Similar to AirPlay and Google Cast, Amazon Fling gives Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick owners the ability to beam images, video, and audio from their iOS and Android mobile apps to their television. To kick things off, Amazon has made available its Fling Software Development Kit (SDK). The neat thing about the SDK is that it's not limited to flinging media content to Fire TV devices, it also supports two-way communication between Fire...Read more...

We’ll gladly forgive you if you’ve completely forgotten about Amazon’s first foray into the smartphone market. The Fire Phone, which was first announced in June 2014 and went on sale as an AT&T exclusive, debuted with a shockingly high price tag of $199 for the 32GB model and $299 for the 64GB model on contract. Prices ballooned to a whopping $650 off-contract for the 64GB model. Many balked at the high pricing of entry given the mid-range specs for the Fire Phone (Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB of RAM) and the meager display (4.7-inch 720p) which was competing against the likes...Read more...

Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year, and while that's not likely to change, Amazon is going to give it a run for the money on Wednesday, July 15, the eve of its 20th anniversary. Dubbed "Prime Day," Amazon promises to offer more deals than Black Friday, though you have to be a Prime member in the U.S., U.K., Spain, Japan, Ital, Germany, France, Canada, or Austria to participate. The global shopping event is valid to both new and existing Prime members. Those who are signed up with Prime will see enticing deals kick off at midnight, with new deals appearing as often as every...Read more...

We were excited when SanDisk announced a new 200GB microSD memory card at Mobile World Congress earlier this year. That is, until we caught wind of the MSRP -- $400! Yeah, it was one of those 'spit coffee on your monitor' moments. Ah, but a little patience makes all the difference in the world, as the exact same card can now be had for $240 on Amazon. That brings the cost per gigabyte down from $2 to a bit more reasonable $1.20. Yes, that's still pricey, especially when the 128GB version sells for $80 on Amazon, or around $0.63 per gigabyte. But that's the kind of premium we...Read more...

There's been a lot of attention paid to Ultra HD (4K) content, and deservedly so, but bumping up the display resolution isn't the only way to enjoy to better visuals. Just ask Amazon, which today announced that Prime members living in the U.S. can watch the first season of its original series Mozart in the Jungle in high dynamic range (HDR). Mozart in the Jungle is the first series to be made available in HDR, and according to Amazon, you can expect greater contrast to the screen with bright colors, enhanced shadow details, and distinct highlights for a superior viewing experience. Just as HDR...Read more...

Digital assistants like Siri and Cortana have their own little perks, but a big one none of them have is the ability to appear on other platforms. Amazon's Alexa, the AI assistant featured on the company's Echo device, is going to become the first -- or at least the first with the most potential. Soon, developers of hardware products will be able to integrate Amazon's Alexa for free. When keeping costs down, nothing beats "free", and we're talking about a very good solution here, and one that's only going to get better thanks to Amazon's machine learning efforts. Amazon gives a couple...Read more...

It’s been a long time coming, but Amazon’s innovative Echo speaker can now be purchased by anyone with an Amazon account. Echo, which was first announced in early November, has until today only been available to Amazon customers on an invite-only basis. Echo is more than just a speaker; it’s a digital assistant for your home that responds to the sound of your voice to provide information on weather, sports scores, traffic, and even news. It’s audio capabilities are enhanced via the ability to tap into streaming music services like Amazon Music, Prime Music, iHeartRadio, and Pandora. You can use...Read more...

One of the challenges of online shopping is navigating a product's user reviews for fair assessments of its pros and cons. That's no easy task -- some people are habitual complainers who overstate the negatives, while others could be shills for a competitor. Still, some can be helpful, and to ensure those are the ones you see first, Amazon is going to use a machine learning platform to determine and uplift the better evaluations.This is a proprietary system that Amazon developed on its own. The idea is to prioritize newer and more helpful reviews so that they're the first ones you see and read...Read more...

Advertising on the popular Roku set top box is about to get a big boost, thanks to a partnership between Roku and Innovid. Your Roku has a front-row seat to your viewing habits, so it’s not unexpected that the company has been looking for a way to turn that information into targeted advertising. Some outlets are reporting that Roku will sniff your Wi-Fi network for devices and base ads on the info collected from those devices, but that’s simply not true. Roku has refuted the claims and asked that the erroneous information be removed. Innovid has already worked with Facebook and other companies...Read more...